In an op-ed, Prof. Amity Shlaes explains economic conditions in the era of "The Great Gatsby"

— June 1, 2013

Excerpt from The New York Times -- "Nearly all economists, including those who express concern over income disparities of the 1920s, count multiple factors at work preventing recovery in the 1930s. They do not blame stock prices, or even President Coolidge. Yet it is human nature to believe that when an event follows an event, the first event causes the second. The misery of the ’30s was of such magnitude, or so the narrative suggests, that most people want to believe it must have been preceded a force of similar magnitude. Post hoc, ergo Gatsby."